An Open Letter to the Candidates

By the end of this day, one of you will have “won” the prize – the most important, challenging job in the entire world. By the end of this day, one of you will have bullied, cheated, cajoled, lied, and attacked more than the other to convince the plurality of this nation that you are less unfit to be President than your opponent.

Every report I hear and see indicates that voter participation is higher than usual. People are lining up and waiting hours to cast their vote. And yet, from what I’m hearing, no one is excited about either one of you. The majority of people are merely excited to ensure that one of you is kept as far away from the White House as possible.

In the end it will not matter if one of you lied repeatedly, compromised classified information, cheated your primary opponents out of a fair game, sent provocateurs to sabotage your opponent’s rallies and events, and used your media contacts to give yourself an advantage in debates.

In the end it will not matter that you have run some of the dirtiest, classless, disinformation-filled campaigns in history.

In the end, it will not matter if one of you threatened your primary opponents’ family members, made wild accusations, courted racist swine, hired a national security adviser who was obviously compromised by the Russians, or demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of foreign policy, the military, macroeconomic policy, or intelligence.

One of you will be President. One of you will have won, and America will have lost, and lost big.

We will move on from this, because we have to. We are the world’s lone superpower, and we have a lot to contend with. I’m not talking about the deep divisions you have helped foster during this ass show of a campaign. I’m talking about real world challenges that in the end, I trust neither one of you to handle well, but will have to deal with anyway.

I’m talking about a resurgent, aggressive Russia that is subversively undermining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbors.

I’m talking about cyber attacks and hacks launched by Russia, China, and others.

I’m talking about Middle Eastern conflicts and the burning civil war in Syria that is sending hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing all over the world and overflowing into western borders.

I’m talking about a fat little despot in North Korea, who is just insane enough to initiate a nuclear conflict.

As president you will have to not only learn everything you can about this and deal with domestic discord to boot and a Congress that will likely do nothing but ensure one of you fails, but you will have to appoint the best and the brightest to help you. I have no faith you’ll do that either, given the cronyism that is pervasive in your individual campaigns.

And yet, here we are.

My best hope for you – the “winner” of this contentious, ridiculous, rancorous, absurd shit show that is making those outside the United States believe we have lost our collective minds – is that you won’t fuck anything up too badly, that you won’t destroy economic relationships and alliances, that you won’t strip the military, and that you won’t send our forces to invade all the things merely to show how big your metaphorical balls are.

That’s not a very high hope. It’s merely a baseline. Whichever one of you takes office in January, I doubt you’ll represent the majority of Americans, because both of you have already shown that this election is about you, not about our country. It’s about winning, and doing it at any cost possible.

And you’ve won by succeeding at convincing the plurality of this country that you don’t suck as bad as you do.

My advice, for what it’s worth – and I know you won’t take it anyway, so I’m probably talking to the wind – is to listen and learn. Select the best, smartest, and most dedicated people for your administration – not dedicated to you, and not beholden to you, but those who genuinely have the skills, knowledge, and abilities to help you lead this country, and the humility to process and synthesize the information they receive. Choose wisely – not for your ego, but for the good of this nation – not as payback for supporters, but as a nod to their dedication to America and the people who put you in office. Have the humility to put aside your preconceived notions and defer to experts on issues that are critical to our country. This position is not about your ego. It’s about providing cogent, honorable, and mature leadership to the greatest nation on earth and being accountable to the people who held their noses and voted you into the White House in hopes that your brand of disease is less onerous than the other candidate’s brand of disease.

I would love for you to prove me wrong, whoever you are. In four years, I would love to say, “This person exceeded my expectations, and I will vote for them with the confidence that they are the kind of leader America needs.” Please. Prove me wrong. Give me something to hope for, because right now, I’m nauseated at the thought of one of you inhabiting the White House.

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22 responses

There may be a small chance that Trump may choose capable people and become a surprise administrator. Hillary? GTFOOH! You might just as well have directed your writing to Trump only. Hillary will be as corrupt as we all know the Clintons and their ilk to be. Dennis Prager (who, like me was a Cruz supporter and was angry at Trump for his excesses) likened this race to choosing between 2 doors – door 1 had a man-eating lion behind it, door 2 was an unknown. Which do you choose? Suicide or a risky maybe. There is no 3rd choice in his scenario. If one wishes to rationalize a 3rd choice by saying “I’m above it all and I’m sitting this one out”, so be it but we’re all still gonna have to live the results no matter which one is chosen. The degree of our suffering is up to the voter. One way or another. God help this nation. (Yes, I know you’re an atheist.)

Judging by whom he’s chosen to surround himself with so far, I’d say your very slight optimism is pretty much misplaced.😦

Larry Correia compared this to brain cancer versus colon cancer. Both are cancers – it’s just a matter of choosing your death. The problem with some is that they’re trying to pass brain cancer off as pizza.

My writing was directed to both, based on what I’ve seen. Trump is not an unknown. He’s very much a known, and I’ve documented my opposition to him in painful detail over the past year or so. He’s not a risky maybe at all. Let’s make this choice knowing exactly what we’re getting into here. Hiring a syphilitic, incoherent, drunken hobo to run a country and claiming he’s an unknown because he’s never governed before is self delusion. YMMV.

To give the devil his due, brain tumors and colon cancers do have different survival rates😉 As Insta argued, one of the two awful choices will face hostile press and bureacra(p)cy from day one, which may put some restraints on imperiousness. The other choice, if anything, will be egged on by Mediatamites and Deep State alike.

I respectfully disagree. The MSM will spin every crackbrained idea of hers like it was handed down from God with a temporary detour thru Moses. Marble Mouthed Mitch will summon up all the backbone of a jellyfish and say”I disagree with the president” (Then retire for cocktails for a couple of days)and Pee Wee Paul will say “I don’t want Katie Couric mad at me so I ain’t sayn’ nothin'”. She’ll then do it by executive order and If Cruz or Rand Paul dare to protest, McCain, et al will label them Hobbits or wacko birds and the MSM will call him a maverick which he loves more than life itself. What has happened in the last 8 years to make me think otherwise? Yeah, I got a shit attitude. Why wouldn’t I?

Hey, we all do in different ways, and there’s definitely room for disagreement here, although I don’t think we’re THAT much apart. I will also submit, that the NeverTrumpers in the GOP all kind of fell in line, so I have no faith that they will stand up to any harebrained idea of his either. Sigh.

I look at it this way.
The Donald has many personal misgivings. He is thin-skinned, has a sexually immoral past, habitually lies about his own accomplishments, has no ability to speak in measured tone, has one of the smallest vocabularies of any presidential candidate ever ( although, I for one, have never exactly equated wordsmithiness with wisdom. There have been many unwise good writers ). Despite all this I feel he has a real heartfelt desire to help others, and has terrific kids.

Hillary, OTOH, is intelligently evil. But not evil in wishing others harm. Just evil in seeing nothing particularly wrong with using her public position to enrich herself. I think she deliberately plots to get as much as she can for personal gain out of her government activities. Other than a general preference for leftist policies and thinkers, I don’t see she has any vision for the country, other than she would like to be in charge of where the money goes. She is the most corruptible candidate I have ever seen.

As a Libertarian, I have a full understanding that my vote will not decide the outcome between two authoritarian Statists; so I don’t participate in the political theater, but rather put my vote where it can actually count, towards the magical 5%.

[…] I was most certainly aware that one of the major party two would get the keys to the White House, but to me, there was little difference between the two when it came to qualifications to lead this […]

Rob

Hi, I'm Rob. I used to blog at Northern Virginia Conservative, but Nicki got way more hits anyhow, so I moved over here. My language is somewhat less colorful than hers, but I also get pretty passionate.

I'm a liberty Republican activist, and work in fundraising right now during the day.